Duke Of Sdermanland Wilhelm

Vocation

Notable

Swedish prince as the second son of King Gustav V of Sweden and his Queen consort Victoria of Baden. He was a noted photographer who also authored a large number of books (primarily in Swedish) as Prins Wilhelm. On 3 May 1908, Wilhelm married Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. She was a daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Greece, and was a cousin of the reigning Russian tsar, Nicholas II. Wilhelm and Maria had only one son Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland and later Count Bernadotte af Wisborg (1909–2004). The marriage was unhappy. Maria later told people that her husband was a homosexual, though that is not known to be true. The couple divorced in 1914. Wilhelm had a relationship, which was not publicly known, with Jeanne de Tramcourt from that year until 1952. They lived together for more than 30 years on the estate Stenhammar near Flen. On 2 January 1952, she died in a car accident in a snowstorm near Stjärnhov in Södermanland, when they were on their way to Stenhammar after visiting Wilhelm's son Lennart. Wilhelm was driving when the accident took place. After this tragedy, he is said never to have recovered. He died in Stockholm on 5 June 1965, aged 80. Link to Wikipedia biography